Neil Cavuto Uses His "Business" Show to Prime Pump for War on Iran

Neil Cavuto has used his "business show" over the past week to unabashedly promote the concept of a unilateral strike against Iran either by the United States or Israel. He scheduled a plethora of guests, all sounding alarms about Iran, the Europeans, Al Qaeda, Lebanon, Syria, etc. These terror warnings are designed to send FOX viewers' blood pressure soaring and hearts racing. However, I believe they have a darker purpose. And so I ask this question (along with millions of other patriotic Americans): Is FOX News acting in concert with the Bush administration to set the stage for an imminent attack on Iran either by America or Israel? With video.

Last Wednesday, May 16th, Cavuto scheduled a trifecta of gloom and doomers. He then followed up yesterday by interviewing former (and possibly next) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

John Bolton has been making the rounds on FOX News, having appeared on Cavuto last week and, as Ellen reported, on Hannity & Colmes last night, in an effort to trumpet his "get 'em before they get us" message.

While Bolton was spouting his usual tripe, I felt that the scariest segment offered up by Cavuto last week was the interview with Richard Miniter of Pajamas Media. He was obviously scheduled to add fuel to Bolton's fire by claiming that he had "proof" of Iranian complicity in American deaths in Iraq. (In an interesting aside, Miniter blamed Hezbollah for the destruction of Lebanon, conveniently forgetting that it was Israel's massive military assault that reduced Lebanon to rubble!)

Finally, somewhat later in the same show, the ever-obnoxious Mark Steyn made an appearance to utter dire warnings about how we really can't trust France's new Prime Minister to come to our aid when we ask for sanctions against Iran.

It would seem that the "Bomb Iran" crowd is still alive and well and spreading fear, happily aided and abetted by FOX News Channel using the usual deadly cocktail of lies, innuendo, misinformation and overblown rhetoric.

It was the segment with Richard Miniter that caught my attention, knowing as I do that Miniter is one of the minor masters of pro-war spin.

I was not disappointed.

Miniter, aided and abetted by a complicit Neil Cavuto, palmed off old information as though it was shiny and new.

It is truly despicable that FOX News would allow this to happen, knowing, as they undoubtedly do, that the "cache" of weapons Miniter trotted out as "proof" of Iran's nefarious intentions in Iraq, was revealed to reporters in a series of show-and-tells between February and April. Knowledgeable experts were dubious and the military officials backed off quickly on claims that these weapons were connected to the Iranian government.

The same Major Martin Weber that Richard Miniter spoke with has been the point person for all prior revelations involving these weapons. Yet, Miniter told Cavuto that that Major Weber was merely a West Point graduate who was an expert and completely impartial. Miniter never mentioned that Major Weber has commanding officers and those officers are desperate to find something that would give George Bush even the tiniest opening to bomb Iran thus killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians and throwing the Middle East into endless war and chaos.

On February 26th the Los Angeles Times ran an article about one of the caches that had been displayed, stating

An Army explosives expert said the C-4 plastic explosives were used to make lethal bombs that the military calls EFPs -- explosively formed projectiles. The explosives were found alongside enough bomb-making materials to build 150 EFPs capable of penetrating heavily armored vehicles, according to the expert, Maj. Martin Weber.

Mortars and rockets found in the same cache also were manufactured in Iran, Weber said. The cache included 150 machine-milled copper plates that form a shaped, concave lid on the projectile. When the weapons explode, those lids form balls of molten metal that can punch through the armor on vehicles.

The cache was believed to be the first EFP manufacturing site found inside Iraq, officers said. They had previously assumed that most EFPs were assembled outside the country and brought in nearly whole.

Officers said they did not know where the copper plates were manufactured, or by whom. They also said they could not prove who supplied the materials or who was building the EFPs.

The briefing was the third in two weeks in which U.S. military officials set forth evidence that they said showed Iran's hand in Iraq's violence.

By contrast with previous sessions, officers at today's display were careful not to accuse the Iranian government of involvement. U.S. officials have had to backtrack from previous assertions of direct involvement by Iran's top government officials.

"I don't think there's any way for us to know if it's tied to any government," said Maj. Jeremy Siegrist, the executive officer for the unit that recovered the materials. "That's a stretch too far."

Always willing to fan the flames of war, Pajamas Media has uploaded Richard Miniter's propaganda video , complete with carefully-worded rebuttals to the dating and language questions that arose when the Bush administration first tried to foist this story onto a fearful and gullible public.

The initial thing that struck me upon viewing the Miniter video was that the bombs all had American writing and American dating on them. I thought to myself, "Is this ordnance left over from Iran-Contra?" That particular question was not answered by Mr. Miniter or Major Weber.

The second thing I wondered is how the Major shown in the video managed to get his hands on a list of Iranian weapons. Other than a brief proviso that the list was "captured," there was no explanation of exactly what the list was, who created it, where it came from, etc. As with everything in the Bush administration, the attitude seems to be that the public should just go along and not question anything, even if it is the prelude to yet another act of unilateral aggression against yet another sovereign nation.

The blog Entropic Memes offers up some possible explanations of this here and here. TalkingPointsMemo has published the government's "evidence" (including photos) for making the connection between Iran and these weapons. I am hoping some of our military readers will offer their opinions about these reports.

Given the build-up last week, it came as no surprise when Benjamin Netanyahu showed up yesterday (May 21, 2007) on Your World with Neil Cavuto. He was accorded great respect by Cavuto who asked him leading, softball questions clearly designed to elicit a predetermined response. As with John Bolton's interviews, this one was designed to blame Syria and Iran for the troubles in the Middle East. Netanyahu is a notorious hawk and would be more than willing to bomb Iran, should he get the "go ahead" from George Bush.

COMMENT
What I don't understand is why rational human beings would advocate for endless war the way FOX News hosts and guests do? As we've reported before, a lot of its military analysts make their millions in the war and security businesses.

Why would FOX News and other conservative media push so hard to increase misery, death and destruction in the world? Do they honestly believe that they are somehow "above" it all and war will never touch the hems of their garments? Are they all making so much money from war investments that they've lost sight of the human toll? Or are they just paid flacks, doing it for a paycheck and a seat at the White House Christmas Party?

Whatever their reasons, it does not bode well for the world if they get their way.